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Latest crime wave: seat theft
Miami Herald ^ | January 27, 2004 | SOFIA SANTANA ssantana@herald.com

Posted on 01/27/2004 5:08:26 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

Owners of sport utility vehicles with optional third-row seats are discovering that the seats are highly prized by thieves. And police don't have a clue as to why.

DADE, BROWARD

When Jose Grau walked out of his West Kendall home early one recent morning, he saw immediately that someone had broken into his Ford Expedition.

Grau, an electrician, thought someone had stolen the tools he kept in the SUV. He was stunned when he saw the thieves had taken only the third-row seat. The tools, his radio and everything else were untouched.

But where the bench seat used to be was now just an empty space.

''I have just two months left on my lease, and now I'm going to have to pay for the seat when I turn my SUV in,'' Grau said.

Grau is one of many victims of what seems to be the latest bizarre crime trend plaguing South Florida. For reasons that police have yet to discern, dozens of cases of third-row seat thefts are reported each week across Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Most involve Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators.

Police do not keep separate records based on what is stolen, so it's not known how often the crime takes place. But investigators in both counties, and in some major cities like Miami, say they have seen more of the third-row thefts recently.

The seats, which are designed to be removed quickly, seem to be simple to steal. But police are puzzled about why crooks are doing it.

It could be that someone is stealing them to sell on the street, investigators say. Or it could be that a crime ring in another country or another part of the United States wants the seats for some reason.

The thefts might even be part of an insurance scam.

Police haven't figured it out yet. They just know that SUVs parked throughout Miami-Dade and Broward are vulnerable.

Police have been seeing these thefts for more than a year, but the number of cases shot up over the last three months, particularly in Doral and West and Southwest Miami-Dade, according to police reports.

''Way back when, the trend used to involve car emblems,'' said Detective Juan DelCastillo, a Miami-Dade police spokesman. ``Now, there is also a trend with headlights.''

But those cases were and are relatively simple.

Thieves stole emblems, like that on a Mercedes, off car hoods to sell on the street to people who wanted to put them on their cars or hang them from their rear view mirrors, police said.

The headlights are being stolen and resold on the street to street racers and car enthusiasts who install them on their own cars.

Third-row seats are different -- and more expensive to replace.

Large SUV manufacturers sell them with option packages, which range from $600 to $900. Buying one separately, to replace a stolen one, could cost a victim anywhere from $800 to $2,000.

Many victims said that their insurance covers the costs, minus the deductible.

Someone broke into Benjamin Caban's 2000 Ford Expedition in Doral on Jan. 14.

''They pried the lock on the back door to open it and then they took the seat,'' Caban said. ``You definitely need two people to do it.''

In most of the cases, the thieves reach the third-row seat by prying the lock on the rear door or breaking a window, police said, adding that experts could probably steal a seat in as little as a minute.

Lincolns are made by Ford, so the seats are similar. Several calls to Ford's headquarters in Michigan seeking comment were not returned.

Detectives say that an SUV owner's best bet is to remove the third-row seat and keep it indoors when it's not needed. If that's not an option, owners should park their cars inside a garage or in a well-lit area.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: auto; crime; gangs; headlights; theft

1 posted on 01/27/2004 5:08:26 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
I'm sworn to secrecy, can I can't reveal exactly what's going on ... but I can say that the aliens are doing this ... and it's connected to cow mutilations. That's all I'll say.
2 posted on 01/27/2004 5:11:06 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (I'm having an apotheosis of freaking desuetude)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Maybe they make good rafts for fleeing Cuba.


3 posted on 01/27/2004 5:12:25 AM PST by martin_fierro (Please direct all Quality Control complaints to Tijeras_Slim)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Sounds like a FloriDUH problem.
4 posted on 01/27/2004 5:12:38 AM PST by Fester Chugabrew
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To: ClearCase_guy
the aliens are doing this ... and it's connected to cow mutilations.

El Chupabenchseata!

5 posted on 01/27/2004 5:14:25 AM PST by martin_fierro (Please direct all Quality Control complaints to Tijeras_Slim)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
For chop shops. There is always a demand for parts and the more popular the car, the more likely thieves are to go after one to get what's need. Sometimes its the car; sometimes wheels or hubcaps, the spare tire, and on occasion even seats.
6 posted on 01/27/2004 5:19:13 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: martin_fierro
Momma's seata
7 posted on 01/27/2004 5:25:45 AM PST by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
In Texas in the 1990s my son found out the hard way that thieves were after pickup tail gates. His Ford 150 had been in a minor collision and was sporting a brand new tail gate when he parked it at the Dallas airport. When he returned several days later -- no tail gate.It was the third one taken that week, according to airport authorities.

Too late, he noticed that wiser pickup owners were parking their trucks backwards -- with the tailgate up against a fence or a building. for good reason.

8 posted on 01/27/2004 5:30:11 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
''I have just two months left on my lease, and now I'm going to have to pay for the seat when I turn my SUV in,''

Follow the money. Wouldn't it be ironic to find out the dealership was behind this?
9 posted on 01/27/2004 5:40:07 AM PST by Hegemony Cricket (Dodging the Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune)
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To: joesnuffy
Smugglers might have a demand for the seats if they want to try to conceal drugs or who knows what. If you are the tin foil kind you might wonder if terrorism is involved in the demand for these seats. There has to be a demand or they would not be targeted for theft. Perhaps their is some devioius plot to load them with plastic explosives and to trade them out on new cars during a test drive. Al Queda could plant hundreds of these seat bombs with timers to go off on a particular date. That would be ugly. Or perhaps its just homeless folks getting a seat to sleep on.
10 posted on 01/27/2004 5:44:26 AM PST by BOBWADE
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
100% pure speculation, accept no substitute:

Seat are being use for smuggling dope, and the process of unloading the dope destroys the seats to the point that it is simply easier to steal new ones for the next run than try to make them look right again.

That or it has something to do with this guy...

seat smuggler

11 posted on 01/27/2004 5:46:13 AM PST by Fixit
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To: Hegemony Cricket
Follow the money. Wouldn't it be ironic to find out the dealership was behind this?

Not a chance. The dealership would have to make the leasing company whole, which is never the dealership itself. If you turn in a lease, and the dealership ends up with the vehicle, it's because they purchased the vehicle from the leasing company.

12 posted on 01/27/2004 5:46:21 AM PST by wayoverontheright
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To: All
We know about the headlight theft problem first hand. The police officer taking the report said there had been similar thefts in the D.C. suburbs.
13 posted on 01/27/2004 5:51:08 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Maybe it is college students needing some extra seats for their rented apartments or dorm rooms?
14 posted on 01/27/2004 6:24:40 AM PST by Chewbacca (I want to be Emperor of Mars.)
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To: Chewbacca
That was my first thought or perhaps even the homeless or druggies looking to furnish a shooting gallery or underpass.
15 posted on 01/27/2004 6:32:10 AM PST by xp38
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
I am going to guess that with the advent of the Navigator as the thug vehicle of choice, the thieves are adding an option they didn't get on the vehicle when they ahhhh purchased it.
16 posted on 01/27/2004 6:40:59 AM PST by doodad
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
My guess would be they are being sold to people who get the vehicles without the optional seat, and then want one, but don't want to pay dealer price.
17 posted on 01/27/2004 6:44:12 AM PST by nh1
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